Rights management languages, such as the extensible rights markup language (XRML) standard or the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) standard, typically provide functionality for identifying attributes associated with digital resources. Attributes in conventional systems typically comprise a set of rights or conditions associated with a resource. Rights markup languages typically provide benefits including flexibility in defining attributes for varying business models, interoperability between trust environments using similar markup languages, and extendible language schema that are customizable by administrators.
However, conventional systems typically require processing of individual resources to associate the resources with the appropriate rights or conditions. Processing resources may include identifying a set of attributes to associate with a resource, digitally signing the resource with an identification of the identified attributes, and publishing the digitally signed resource, for example, by uploading the resource to a shared server. Typically, individual resources are processed one at a time and resources must be associated with attributes before the resources are made available to users. The processing of each resource in an organization may create a significant administrative task.
Additionally, once processed, the attributes are typically permanently associated with the resources. The same attributes are typically enforced regardless of differences between the clients requesting the access. However, different policies, and therefore different access right attributes, may apply to different clients, or to a single client at different times. For example, one client may satisfy a policy and be authorized for a particular level or type of access to a resource, while another client fails to satisfy the policy and is not authorized for any access to the same resource. In another example, a client making a request at one point in time may satisfy an applicable policy but may no longer satisfy the applicable policy at the time of a later request, for example when the client makes the request from a different network. Alternatively, an administrator may wish to change an attribute associated with a resource, or a policy identifying the attributes associated with a resource, without wishing to re-process all the resources in an organization.
A dynamic method for assigning attributes to a resource at the time of the request for access to a resource, instead of before, would be desirable. Additionally, a flexible method for assigning varying attributes based on real-time evaluations of clients, and information associated with the clients, at the time the clients make the request.